blackturtle.us: Thank you for not being too explicit about what you saw. The images give it away, but at least your write up advertised nothing. Good thing no one mistook you for a cattle rustler! I'm sure the ranchers are a bit nervous during calving season.

Peak 5294'This is a rather nice eight mile out and back hike. The distance could be cut in half with a Jeep or quad to get around a rough section of road. This actually gets you pretty close to the Russian Cabin and the petroglyphs near the cabin. Other Donkey Trails reports overlap with this hike, but this extension is interesting. Except for a quick scramble to the peak, the whole route is on donkey trail once the Jeep trail is left behind.

blackturtle.us: Looking at the topography of the area you hiked through, I'd say that it's safe to say that parts of the route you took were STEEP AS FUCK! Other parts were just steep. How was the view at the top?

BallaratBob: Well, actually I can answer that question. From Peak 5294 quite a lot can be seen. To the north is Maturango Peak. To the south is Argus Peak. Way off to the east is Telescope and the rest of the Panamints. Of most interest are the sites to the west and northwest. From Peak 5294 the area around Bircham Springs is visible and beyond that Wildhorse Mesa and Louisianna Butte.

If someone were to publish a book called Donkey Trails of Searles Valley and it contained lots of history, images, maps, and interesting trivia, I bet it would sell pretty well providing that it was professionally done. It would be a good way to preserve the trails for posterity since otherwise the trails will eventually all disappear except for the ones that the donekys continue to use.

CrustyOldFart: The only trails worth preserving for posterity are the old miner trails. At least that's how I feel. A lot of the trails are trails made and used by donkeys and a lot of the trials still used by donkeys may be old miner trails. I doubt there is much historical info to tell us who did what in that regards, but if the trail leads to an old mine or prospect then it most likely would be an old miner trail, but who knows as for the other trails.

Might as well add my two cents. What I noticed is that not all the trails shown in this thread are in Searles Valley. They're divided between two valleys and three mountain ranges. There's Searles and Panamint Valley represented here and the Argus, Slate, and Panamint ranges to be reckoned with additionally. That kind of messes up a short and pithy book title unless the intention is to just focus on one valley or another and leave everything else out.

Top of Gold Bottom to Copper Queen OverlookI may post some pics in a day or two, but for now here's the route map. It was a ten-mile round trip with 2940 feet gain/loss. The upper canyon is quite interesting. There are lots of old miner's trails going all over the place. Also lots of old stone mine claim markers. Click the map to see it at normal size.

blackturtle: Interesting route. Most people would have just hiked straight up from the Gold Bottom Mine. There's a lot of mining history in that area and so it's no surprise that there are a lot of trails throughout that area.

blackturtle: 2940 feet? What's with you and hikes that are STEEP AS FUCK? Someone told me that you are old enough to retire. What are you some kind of masochist? That being said I am envious to see some of the places that you see for myself there in person.